Kala Chana Curry (Black Chickpea Curry)

Kala chana curry is a very simple Indian curry. The brown chickpeas are a little firmer and a little tastier than the white/yellow chickpeas we are used to in the UK. This recipe has loads of flavour and loads of fibre.

Preparation Time:5 minsCooking Time:55 minsYield:6 servings

This recipe does need some advance preparation. You'll need to soak the chickpeas in the morning so that they're ready when you want to cook in the evening.

Since brown chickpea curry has so much fibre in it and demands determined chewing, it's best to enjoy a small bowl of it, perhaps with some rice and another curry.

Ingredients

300g
black/brown chickpeas (kala chana)

750mL
water
(~750g)

40mL
sunflower oil
(~36.4g)

1 tsp
whole cumin seed
(~2g)

1
green chilli pepper
(~3g)

1 small knob
fresh ginger
(~8g)

30g
chickpea flour (gram flour/besan)

1 tsp
ground turmeric
(~2.5g)

8g
ground coriander seed

40mL
lemon juice
(~41.2g)

3g
salt

8g
fresh coriander (cilantro)

2g
unrefined caster sugar

Method

Soak the black chickpeas for 8 to 24 hours in a litre of water - I start them soaking before I go to work and cook with them when I get home.

Drain the chickpeas and rinse.

Start to heat the sunflower oil in a non-stick pan that can be covered later

Boil the kettle, with about a litre of water in it.

Finely chop the chilli and peeled ginger, measure out the cumin seeds and set aside.

Add the asafoetida to the oil and then immediately afterwards add the chilli, ginger and cumin seeds

Fry on a high heat while stirring for 1 minute.

Add the chickpea flour, turmeric and ground coriander and stir in to make a paste, keep on the heat for another minute.

Add 750mL of boiling water and stir, then add the drained chickpeas

Bring to the boil and cover, simmer for 40 minutes. At this point the chickpeas should be fully cooked and be suitably soft.

Optionally, mash up some of the chickpeas with a potato masher to thicken the sauce.

One variation on this is to add de-skinned and de-seeded diced tomato at the same time as the chickpeas. It makes it a little sweeter and changes the flavour quite a bit. If you love the taste of chickpeas, this recipe doesn't need tomatoes. Some also prefer it hotter, this recipe is quite mild, so some people may wish to put in more fresh chilli at the start or adjust with powder at the end.

It's really important that you only add the salt towards the end as directed, otherwise it can stop the chickpeas from softening properly.